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Michael Andersen

@andersem.bsky.social

3.9K followers 510 following 11K posts

Believer, skeptic, humanist, typist & dad. Trying to make places fairer as director of cities + towns for @Sightline.org, here in Portland OR. Views here: mine, all mine.

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Reposted by Michael Andersen

𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇 @taras-grescoe.com · 1d

“We assume that car use is an incompressible liquid that must be routed somewhere. But it’s more more like a gas that fills whatever space it is given.”

—Ian Lockwood, Harvard Loeb Fellow, transport planner.

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Reposted by Michael Andersen

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 7h

Deep dive into the surge in US pedestrian deaths:

"It’s not that more pedestrians are getting hit by vehicles; it’s that the ones that are getting hit are more likely to die."

"[That] seems like fairly strong evidence for the theory that the rise in large SUVs is behind the uptick in ped deaths."

Why Are So Many Pedestrians Killed by Cars in the US?

It’s unfortunately not uncommon for pedestrians to be killed by cars in the US.

www.construction-physics.com

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 14h

Is there a public health justification for those?

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 16h

Ok everybody I follow, message received, the score was tied

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 1d

True, and this takes some steps to reduce costs! The best federal bill on the subject so far

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 1d

🏆

Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · 1d

America is not building enough housing and Americans are facing sky-high housing costs as a result.

Today, the Senate took a historic step to change that.

The ROAD to Housing Act will help communities – urban, suburban, and rural – build more housing and bring down costs.

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 1d

4 players and yall only have one city on the board by generation 5? I guess nobody drew mass transit

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 1d

I know!

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 2d

Vancouver is something else

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 2d

Secret police www.wweek.com/news/2025/10...

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Reposted by Michael Andersen

Aidan T @buildhomes.bsky.social · 3d

Another bill they're talking about bringing up again is one that benefits homeowners at the expense of renters is the corporate homeownership ban. Allowing people to rent single family homes gives renters the ability to live in all neighborhoods.

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Reposted by Michael Andersen

Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 3d

Love this new report on buildings' relative fire safety from @alexhrwtz.bsky.social and Pew colleagues.

www.pew.org/en/research-...

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 4d

Lender, developer, capital investor

Reposted by Michael Andersen

macdiehard.bsky.social @macdiehard.bsky.social · 5d

Trump has been able to get away with what he by the laziness of past Congresses. They let US Presidents have too much leeway.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 5d

All of these excesses can be reined in, if not entirely eliminated, by Congress—or at least by a Congress not under Donald Trump’s thumb. All it needs is the wisdom to recognize its own crucial role in creating this problem.

Reining in Rogue Presidents

How ambiguities in the law gave Trump power he could seize—and what a future Congress can do about it.

www.thebulwark.com

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 5d

Did it ever? Would the John Ross etc have penciled at what turned to be the price of those homes in like 2018? Or was it a bad gamble by Homer Williams et al?

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

I’m not sure those are mutually exclusive! But maybe they were just bluffing

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

Good summary www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...

We also knew what would happen next. Before there was a chance to mourn the dead, partisans online worked to find out the identity of the gunman and his ideology. After all, the combatants in the culture war have a voracious need for political ammunition. It’s important to constantly prove that “they” are evil, and “they” want you dead.

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

It was like an unprofitable startup that the employees know will have the juice one way or another

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

The one and only

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

We also had pizza on an abandoned commercial stoop next to a bottle of jager

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

The Neofuturists still got it. “If I lived here I would go there every month,” my friend said. neofuturists.org/events/thein...

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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 6d

IMO @zyudhishthu.bsky.social nails it on mandatory minimum densities: you CAN do them right, but the benefits are so minimal & the risks so inevitable that they're not worth the trouble pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-we-boo...

In Minneapolis’s downtown, development must be 10 stories tall with a 4.0 FAR, while different transit-adjacent areas have minimum heights ranging from 2 to 10 stories.

This policy has come into play a couple of times in the past few years. For example, in 2023, a developer wanted to build a seven-story, 135-unit building next to Minneapolis’s Prospect Park Green Line stop. However, the lot was zoned for a 10-story height minimum and city staff refused to grant a variance for a seven-story building. The development was rejected, and no new construction has occurred on the lot.

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